Sunday, May 07, 2017

Corey Stewart in Virginia, next election to watch

Corey Stewart, candidate for governor of Virginia, is making his support for the Confederate monuments a major part of his appeal for voters. This is an article detailing Stewart's neo-Confederate efforts.

Like Sheri Few, Corey Stewart is running a campaign in imitation of Donald Trump hoping that like Donald Trump he will win.

The risk to the neo-Confederates is that if like Few, he doesn't do well at the polls there will be an assessment that the political support for the Confederacy is much less than might be imagined.

Also, an electoral defeat for Stewart, along with the defeat of Few, which reinforce each other. It might be argued that if one lost and one did well, that the losing campaign was an exception. If both lose it will be considered that the political advantage of campaigning for the Confederacy isn't there and in fact a negative factor in an election.

If both do badly it is not likely that any serious candidate in the future will see campaigning as a supporter of the Confederacy advantageous and will in fact see it as a negative thing to be avoided. Being thought of being pro-Confederate itself will be seen as negative to be avoided.

This will not just be in Virginia and in South Carolina but in all states with Confederate monuments. As monuments start being removed, places with monuments will be perceived as being backward and undesirable places. Companies will worry about locating factories there because it will be difficult to relocate talent there.

Mississippi with its flag will seem really retrograde and undesirable.

I think state legislators and local officials might still show up at Confederate events, but I think this will decline also.

I notice that the word "neo-Confederate" is entering general use. As neo-Confederates lose political influence I think more people will be willing to use it.